ACCESS TO EDUCATION Rohingya children’s lack of status has a serious impact on their access to education. The Bangladesh government bars refugee children from accessing formal education and, as a result, Rohingya children are not permitted to enrol in public education institutions; even where they can access informal education, they are not allowed to obtain certification or formal qualifications. For Bangladeshi authorities, the policy appears to be aimed at reinforcing the message that the presence of the Rohingya in the country is temporary, while simultaneously discouraging new arrivals. However, in discussions with Save the Children and others, Rohingya refugees have consistently asserted their desire to return to Myanmar when conditions are safe to do so, indicating that they see education in Bangladesh as a way to improve their prospects once they are able to return. Bangladesh’s informal policy of restricting refugees’ access to education dates back several decades, while ‘registered’ refugees who have been in the country since the 1990s – as well as their children – have similarly struggled to access formal schooling.86 Since 2007, the government began allowing registered refugee children to learn a non-formal, English language version of the Bangladeshi curriculum, however education was not certified and students were not permitted to take national exams.87 As a result, some children of ‘registered’ refugees who speak Bangla obtained Bangladeshi documents and sought education in nearby government schools. However, scores of such students were expelled from schools following an investigation by the authorities in 2019.88 With access to formal education prohibited, UN agencies and NGOs have had to step in to provide non-formal education to Rohingya children. The political sensitivities involved mean that instead of ‘schools’, children study in “temporary learning centres” (TLCs), which are semi-permanent structures made of bamboo as opposed to more durable brickand-mortar structures. Across the congested camps, there are around 3,000 such centres for the estimated 325,764 children and youth aged 2–24 who need education services.89 TLCs are crowded, offering only limited daily hours of schooling, and generally include children from a range of ages in a single class.90 Despite these efforts however, some 83% of youth and adolescents in the camps do not have access to any education.91 Bangladeshi authorities are also extremely sensitive about education that could imply integration of refugees in the country, and, as a result, instruction in Bangla or the use of the Bangladeshi curriculum is banned. 3 COUNTRY BY COUNTRY SNAPSHOT Under Bangladesh’s Citizenship Act, enacted in 1951, every person born in the country after the Act came in to effect is a citizen of the country by birth.83 In theory, this should mean that Rohingya children born in Bangladesh should be automatically granted citizenship; however, in practice, this provision is not implemented. As a result, Rohingya children born in Bangladesh to Rohingya parents are stateless. Until 2009, children who were born of mixed Bangladeshi–Rohingya marriages were not entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship if their father was not of Bangladeshi nationality. In 2009, the Act was amended to provide equal rights for men and women to transfer nationality to their children; however, the amendment does not apply retroactively, meaning that Rohingya children born in Bangladesh to stateless fathers prior to 31 December 2008 remain at risk of statelessness.84 For children born since 2009, interviews indicate that the provision is not always implemented in practice.85 While there is greater provision for primary‑level education, opportunities for secondary level education are much more limited. Only 13% of boys and just 2% of girls aged 15–18 are in school.92 Girls are much less likely than boys to continue education after the age of 10. There are few teaching staff who have themselves completed high school education and are qualified to support learners’ secondary education. Children with disabilities also struggle to access adequate education in the camps as there are even fewer teaching staff with sufficient training to provide specialist support for their learning requirements.93 Meanwhile, for children with physical disabilities – in particular, mobility issues – the geography of the camps (which are hilly, uneven, and prone to flooding and mudslides in the monsoon) makes it difficult to physically access learning centres.94 In a positive move, and following concerted pressure by NGOs and the UN, in January 2020 the Bangladeshi authorities approved the introduction of the Myanmar curriculum in camp learning centres. A pilot, involving 10,000 students from grades 6–9 (11–13 years old) was due to start in April 2020, and would then have been expanded to grades 10 and 11.95 However, the pilot was halted after the Covid-19 pandemic forced all education centres in the camps to close.96 While the initiative marks a 15